Lighting systems for automobiles have been known ever since automobiles were first invented. The first lighting systems consisted of kerosene lamps with clear or colored lenses mounted at various places on the body of the automobile to provide notice to others that the automobile was approaching, and to illuminate the automobile's surroundings. A major drawback to this system was the need to continuously recharge the lamps by filling them with oil, and trim the wicks. Further, the lamps put out a limited amount of light. Even further, unless adjusted carefully, they sooted up their reflectors.
Later, gas lighting systems were provided including lamps with integral to settling gas generators often called “carbide lamps”. Carbide lamps provide an intense light that is particularly suited for illuminating the road around the automobile. While it solved the problem of wick replacement, light intensity, and wick trimming, it still required each lamp to be separately filled and cleaned regularly.
As the systems further developed, centralized gas systems were devised in which a large central gas generator provided gas to several lamps disposed about the periphery of the vehicle. This problem reduce the need for maintaining each one of several different lamps, replacing it with a single, central problem of filling, emptying, and cleaning the central gas generator. Carbide gas generators produce a noxious mix of corrosive chemicals and sludge that cannot be disposed of easily
By the 1910's, battery-powered electrical lighting systems have been developed to replace the centralized gas arrangements. In these battery-powered systems, a battery disposed in the central location provided electrical energy to several lights mounted on the body of the vehicle. Wires extending from the battery were coupled to light bulbs that, in turn, illuminated the road in the surroundings of the vehicle. This solved the problem of periodic lamp cleaning, but replaced it with the problems of battery charging and battery maintenance. The batteries needed to be periodically charged. To do this, they must be either removed from the vehicle and taken to a charging station or the charging equipment must be brought to the battery in the vehicle. Either way, the lights require regular, even daily, adjustments and maintenance.
Not long after this, generators were provided on automobiles to charge the batteries used for lighting. These generators operated whenever the vehicles were running, charging the batteries to maintain a supply of electricity. This battery/generator arrangement is the most common form of present-day automotive lighting. Light elements, which include incandescent light bulbs as well as LEDs, are fixed to the body of the vehicle at various locations. Wires are coupled to these lighting elements to provide them with power. The power is provided by an alternator driven by the engine, which in turn is coupled to a battery. The battery acts as a reservoir of the electrical energy when the engine is stopped.
In addition to the centralized vehicle lighting systems, certain peripheral systems have been devised to provide extra lighting. For example, the automotive aftermarket product industry offers portable lights that plug into cigarette lighter outlets (more recently called “power outlets” since cigarettes have fallen on disfavor). These aftermarket lights can be fixed to a stalk supported by the outlet, or they can be disposed at the end of a flexible power cord that is plugged into the outlet. With these arrangements, the operator supports the light with his hand at the end of the power cord, which permits him to manipulate it and will, either inside or outside the operator's compartment.
Lights have been fixed to the interior of automobiles to light up upon the occurrence of various events, such as the unlocking of an automobile by remote control or other manipulation of remote control buttons, the opening of the door, or the opening of the trunk (boot) or hood (bonnet). Of course, it has been common to turn automotive lights on and off with electrical switches virtually since they were first used in automobiles.
Other automotive lighting systems have been triggered by optical sensors to turn on whenever the automobile (or rather, the optical sensor) is in darkness. These sensor arrangements are used with running lights (taillights and headlights) to ensure that the operator never drives the vehicle in the dark. Running lights serve two purposes: to illuminate the road for the operator's benefit, and to indicate to drivers ahead of the lighted automobile on the road and drivers behind the lighted automobile on the road of the automobile's presence.
Novelty lighting systems are a more recent development. Novelty lighting systems can be understood generally as lighting systems intended to enhance the beauty are stylishness of the automobile, and are not intended as safety measures or basic operational features. Running lights and courtesy or interior lights are not novelty lights.
Running lights, which include taillights, headlights, turn signals, parking lights, and reverse lights, are intended to enhance the safe operation of the vehicle over the road by indicating the presence of the automobile and its intentions to other automobile operators on the road. They are not “novelty lights”, although they may have novelty aspects such as special colors.
Courtesy or interior lights, which include dome lights, side lights, dashboard lights, console lights, indicator lights, map lights, and instrument lights, are not intended for operators of other vehicles, but for the operators and passengers of the vehicle itself, to permit them to enter and exit the vehicle safely, and to operate the various controls within the vehicle with ease, comfort and speed. They also are not novelty lights.
Novelty lights fall in the class of lights that are not necessary or required for safe operation of the vehicle or for the operator and passenger's ease and comfort, but for the personal satisfaction of the operator. Indeed, novelty lights, if viewable from outside the car, may be specifically banned in certain jurisdictions as interfering with vehicle running lights. Add-on or aftermarket lights may only be permissible to the extent they imitate already-permissible running lights. For example, large, high output, beamed white lights can only be used on the front of automobiles, and only if they are pointed in the same direction as the automobiles and headlights. In this sense, these aftermarket lights are not “novelty” lights, but supplements to (or replacements for) headlights.
Novelty lights are not the only customizable feature of an automobile. Wheels and wheel trim have been another area of novelty customization. Automobile wheels were originally imitations of wagon wheels, having a wooden hub, with wooden spokes that extended outward to a wooden rim with metal binding. As time passed, the hub was replaced with a steel hub and the individual wooden spokes were replaced with metal spokes. By the 1920's, the entire wheel was made out of stamped or pressed metal.
Not long after this, the enthusiasm for customizing automobiles expanded to include customizing wheels. Hubcaps were devised that provided a shiny or sparkling appearance to what was otherwise plain painted metal. Hub caps originally covered just the hub of the wheel. As time passed, and wheels became solid pressed or stamped metal structures, hubcaps extended all the way across the wheel from one side of the rim to the other.
Until recently, hubcaps were fixed to the wheel itself. Either attached to the rim, or attached to the hub, they are fixed to the wheel and rotated at exactly the same speed as the wheel. These devices had no moving parts. They achieved their eye-catching effects merely by the many reflections of ambient light off their numerous faceted reflective surfaces. Recently, however, caps have been designed to sparkle even when the vehicle is stopped by mounting them on the wheel (or wheel hub) with bearings. In normal operation, as the automobile travels down the road, the hubcap is gradually accelerated to the rotational speed of the wheel. Although it is bearing mounted, and thus can spend relatively freely with respect to the wheel, the close coupling between the wheel and the hubcap causes air currents and a certain amount of mechanical drag to accelerate the hubcap. The particular advantage to this arrangement is what happens when the car is stopped. When the operator breaks the vehicle, the wheels slow down. The hubcaps, however, keep spinning even after the vehicle is stopped (for example at a stoplight). Only gradually do the frictional drag of the surrounding air and the slight residual drag of the bearing supporting the hubcap on the wheel cause the hubcap to slow down. During this deceleration, the hubcap (which typically has many bright reflective faceted surfaces), sparkles and appears to an outside observer viewing the automobile from the side as a multiplicity of bright twinkling lights.
This arrangement, however, is limited. First, the hubcap only sparkles and twinkles with light when it rotates. When it is stopped, it no longer attracts the eye of the observer. Second, the speed at which the light reflected from the hubcap twinkles and sparkles is uncontrolled. It is strictly a function of the speed at which the hubcap turns, which depends upon the maximum speed of the car before deceleration, the speed of deceleration, and the friction between the hubcap and the wheel. None of these can be controlled with any accuracy. Third, the hubcap only sparkles and twinkles with light when an external light source is shined upon it. Without street lights, lights from surrounding buildings, or lighted signage, the spinning hubcaps are virtually invisible.
What is needed, therefore, is an improved lighting system for automobile wheels. What is also needed is a wheel illuminating system. What is also needed is a means for lighting the wheels as they rotate. What is also needed is a means of providing the wheels with rotating lights. It is an object of this invention to provide such a system.
These and other objects of the invention will become clear upon reading the description and examining the drawings below in which like-numbered items in all the drawings and the description represent the same elements, features, devices, structures, processes, or methods in all the other drawings and description.